See, my problem with writing straight fic is that I get irritated at having to stick with the traits the existing characters' creators have decreed. That's why I'd generally prefer my own people. Dance, little invisible people in my bloodstream! Dance for mama! (jeeeez, it's a god complex; scary...)
Is that the size of the book as it's going to be on the shelf? And am I allowed to be all sorts of impressed that it's coming out in hard-cover?
Just about the size; I have the hardback here as well (my one copy to date; a box will arrive via FedEx with two dozen more, shortly, I hope) and the hardback's a bit thicker. It's actually about 10,000 words longer than the first book, and Matty Groves is about ten thousand words longer than FFoSM. They keep getting longer, and a bit darker each time.
And sure, you can be impressed about the hardcover aspect; I keep forgetting it's supposed to be preferable, though, since the paperback is actually much more lucrative for the author. A lower royalty rate (I forget what, exactly, but it's something like 8% of the first however many sold and then it goes to 10% at the top of the scale), but a tendency for much bigger advances and much larger print runs.
But it's harder. You have to, you know, be canon. No net...Um, episode guide.
I'm always afraid I haven't made my original characters three dimensional enough.
erika, which is harder? Fic or original? I don't know that I find fic harder, just more irritating to write, because I have to put aside what, as a writer, I would have done to an established character's personality or spirit or whatever, and go with the original creator's stuff. I find that really annoying, after awhile. It's like writing in an old-fashioned girdle.
I'm always afraid I haven't made my original characters three dimensional enough.
Made - how? If they're out there living, and talking, and breathing, and getting involved in their life or the situation you want them to deal with or the on the road you've given them to travel, I find the characters take on their own dimensionality PDQ.
Made - how? If they're out there living, and talking, and breathing, and getting involved in their life or the situation you want them to deal with or the on the road you've given them to travel, I find the characters take on their own dimensionality PDQ.
See above statements re: lacking confidence in my own abilities to do something I find relatively easy. All about the safety nets, me.
Am I allowed to pimp Weaver in HC as Christmas (and any other and all-) occasion presents, so that we can get a paperback run?
If this bothers anybody, I'll take it down. I'm of the opinion it speaks to the state of the publishing industry, and thus is educational for those of us who have yet to publish. But I'll bow to the will, etc.
You're right, Deb...working within somebody's parameters is harder, but there's more of a net for rookies like me. Creating my own world is fun, but a struggle as well. But I'm ready for it...that's why my fic is so intricate.
Ah, okay - the safety net thing, I can follow that. I never felt the need for one, not in writing, so it's a blind spot for me, and I can't really empathise, just sympathise.
But I do wonder, why the sense of terror? It seems to be specifically about writing, or at least more to the fore about writing.
Oh, la. Deb is about to pontificate again.
Look at it this way - and again, I am NOT trying to be insensitive to insecurities, I remember a black moment of wanting to find the genre nazi at PW who trashed Weaver, so that I could batter him with rocks, the stupid git:
Cooking, playing a musical instrument, embroidering, taking a photograph: any of those things is a creative undertaking. Add creative writing to that list (and Allyson's essays fall directly under that header, because she's telling a story, even though it's not fictional, and her ultimate aim is to take us down the road with her).
Now. A question for you - any of the you's out there who have the uh-oh, I mustn't try this, need a safety net reaction specifically for writing:
Do you get the sense of uh-oh when you assemble ingredients from what you've got in the fridge, put them together, and try to make dinner? It's a creative act, with some faith attached.
Do you feel the frantic need to look for other peoples' existing embroidery patterns, every time you get the idea for a picture you want to create with silk thread?
If you had three piano lessons as a kid, and suddenly hear a melody in your head that you can't identify, do you feel the need to read a bunch of books about piano before you flop down on a bench in the music store at the mall, and pick it out on the keyboard, humming as you do so?
All creative acts. Why should writing inspire so much pressure?
edit: That's a real live question, by the by. It isn't rhetorical. I really want to know why people react that way, why writing in particular has such a prevalence of the safety net-need.
